As schools in Stark County work to protect students and staff, officials have to balance securing facilities while keeping them open to the public — a process that now involves extra screening and increased communication.

Canton City Schools routinely opens the doors of its buildings to parents and residents for evening sporting events and meetings.

Steve Humphrey, supervisor of safety and security for the district, said he sees a trend of schools becoming community centers, which is positive because it allows those people to witness the progress schools are making.

"It presents a challenge, though," he said. "It does."

As schools in Stark County work to protect students and staff, officials have to balance securing facilities while keeping them accessible to the public — a process that now involves extra screening and increased communication.

Canton South High School houses Wildcat Cafe, a restaurant open to the public. Redmond said she weighs how to be welcoming to visitors while making sure children are kept safe.

"Certainly the way customers enter our current Wildcat Cafe presents a concern," she said, but she stressed cafe patrons follow the same protocol they would if they were school visitors.

For several districts in the county, community members are asked to present photo identification when they enter school buildings so district officials can double-check whether someone is expecting them and that they are who they claim to be.

Lake Local Schools has a community campus for its high school and middle school that includes a YMCA and a branch of the public library. Superintendent Jeff Wendorf said the district designed the complex to have shared space but also to be separate. It's not possible for someone in a community facility to enter a school without the appropriate pass or key, and the students aren't permitted to be in the community portions without staff present. The district and its community partners also hold monthly meetings, during which safety can be discussed.

The system has worked, he said, for more than 10 years.

Jackson Local Schools Assistant Superintendent Barry Mason said most days of the week there's some kind of event happening at Jackson's middle and high schools. And because Jackson residents are taxpayers, they ought to feel welcome in facilities they fund.

Superintendent Brent May said Plain Local Schools locks the doors to all buildings not just during the day but at night and on the weekends, too. But he says safety precautions need to measured.

"Schools were not built to be prisons," May said. "They're built for the community to learn and grow."